Measuring direct and indirect usage of a central processing unit
US5797115A · kind A · utility
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 24, 1995 |
| Grant date | Aug 18, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 24, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/3423
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for measuring central processing unit (CPU) usage required to execute a predetermined workload that includes system overhead usage of the CPU as well as direct usage of the CPU. The CPU is driven to run processing cycles to perform a workload task or to perform a CPU bound task. The CPU bound task is a cycle soaker; a cycle soaker task runs directly on the CPU and has no system overhead. The cycle soaker task runs whenever there is no workload task ready to run. A monitor module measures the total of all cycles run by the central processing unit from beginning to end of execution of the workload and measures the soaker cycles run by the CPU from beginning to end of execution of the workload. CPU usage attributable to the workload is measured by deducting the soaker cycles from the total of all cycles.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.